RE: Do student opinions/reviews of instruction at the end of semesters mean a damn thing?

(30-01-2016 09:47 AM)UndauntedToast Wrote: I assume they do, but at the same time, if there is anyone here who knows, I'd like to be elucidated with some insight about this.

I'm not sure how it works anywhere else, but at the community college I returned to as a student in 2014, at the end of each semester you are sent automatic notifications, for each class you've taken, to give an anonymous review of instruction for every respective class.

Over the last year and a half, I haven't thought much about it, because I'd never had anything negative to say about the instructors in previous classes. Up until the fall of 2015, I only had positive experiences with respectful, polite and professional ones.

I had a poor experience this past fall. Every instructor was fantastic except my chemistry lab instructor. To make this short and sweet, she was rude, unprofessional, impolite and didn't care to 'instruct' (despite the onus being on her, since the occupation title is to do just that). Before 2015, I had never taken a chemistry course in my life, and in addition to that, I hadn't taken a math class in a decade. My chemistry lecture instructor (yes, one for lecture and one for lab) was, and is, everything that all the other instructors I've had are (polite, professional, respectful).

The lab instructor yelled, screamed and threw childish temper tantrums over stupid shit. I never had any one-on-one personal dealings with her, but she consistently had a condescending tone throughout the entire semester and berated students if they made one mistake doing the labs.

I was licking my chops all semester for the end of it all, to write a review on the veritable garbage instructor. So, the time came around, I did the review. Wrote ten passionate -- but calmly worded and explained, in great detail -- paragraphs about the poor experience in that class, and submitted the survey/review of instruction. I explained her poor attitude and shitty behavior. All the BS. I knew I'd have her again, for this semester (unfortunately; the second part of chemistry), but hoped like hell things would change. Nope. Still the same old scumbucket.

Enough of my long diatribe...

Do these student opinion/reviews of instruction mean a damn thing or hold any impact? Or are they just a collective fart in the wind?

At my school, the deans get every review submitted by the students and then forward those reviews to the professor. -Like the dean is going to sit there and read hundreds of reviews to get an accurate picture of how each professor is performing. I'm sure the professor is not going to sit there and go through hundreds of student reviews either.

Students complain about the same things year after year on the Rate My Professor reviews. Clearly, the professors don't care what the students think.

The review process just seems like a pacifier to give to students who may need to air their frustrations, and that's all it is.

Oh, and by the way, when I'm displeased (or pleased) with a professor, I send them an email directly or waltz right into their offices for a meeting. I make sure they hear me out.

RE: Do student opinions/reviews of instruction at the end of semesters mean a damn thing?

When I was teaching college, I always read my student reviews for ideas on how to improve. I usually got excellent reviews, and I was happy for that, but when somebody had a problem with me, I paid a lot of attention to that to think about how I could do better. I didn't get much negative feedback, but any negatives got more weight with me in evaluating my performance for that class.

I did have a few students who did not at first understand that they would have to support their positions with research and reasoning (I taught essay writing). However, most of those issues were dealt with in student conferences where we could talk through their essays and didn't seem to show up on evaluation sheets.

I have heard many horror stories, though, about people who are terrible teachers with awful student feedback who continue to have jobs. I hope that your feedback makes your instructor reevaluate the approach used.

RE: Do student opinions/reviews of instruction at the end of semesters mean a damn thing?

They should design a better review process if they actually care. Since reading hundreds of reviews is not possible, make a form with ratings for e.g. content, delivery etc from 1-5, with 1 being not happy at all to 5 being super chuffed. Do the review online and anonymously. Put a box at the bottom for a few sentences comment. Any prof that has lots of negative ratings, take a look at the comments and see if something's up.

We'll love you just the way you are
If you're perfect -- Alanis Morissette

(06-02-2014 03:47 PM)Momsurroundedbyboys Wrote: And I'm giving myself a conclusion again from all the facepalming.